News: February 2022

February report

The Nordic Trail is popular again, but the inconsistent weather has made grooming difficult with a contractor who needs 24 hour notice.  We held a Nordic at Night event February 5^th with the Upper Valley Land Trust.  The Lions fireworks display at the Brookmead Conservation Area on February 19^th, was postponed along with the skiing/snowshoe event, due to the warming conditions

We were approached by Linda Gray to help with the Energy Committee’s Earth Day event, which will have an introduction to E-vehicle charging at Huntley Meadows, and then move to the Town Green.

Basketball Season -  Our teams finished all games this month. We were pleased to have the opportunity to play against Hanover in a very exciting series of back-to-back games in the Ray School.  We began the introduction to 3v3 games, which was met with enthusiasm.

The ice rink was closed due to the warm weather, so our 6^th grade skating event was turned into a 6^th grade marshmallow-roasting, cupcake decorating, Norwich Farm Creamery cocoa and homemade slime-making event in the Milton Frye Nature Area.  Over 20 students were in attendance, and all had a wonderful kick-off to their 2022 graduation events

Foraging in the Fields and Forests of Norwich (with the Conservation Commission and Norwich Historical Society).  Conservation and Recreation go hand and hand, so presenting our foraging photos with an assist from Craig Layne was a natural fit.  We had 60+ sign up for the presentation, with attendees from as far away as OH and PA.  We purposefully stayed away from discussing toxic look-alikes, since ID-via-Zoom could have unfortunate consequences.  Overall, the presentation went well, and we received several positive comments in the days afterward.  Link to the presentation is here: https://norwichhistory.org/foraging-in-the-fields-and-forests-of-norwich/

The Youth Advisory Council began meeting this month, with an introduction to our municipal structure. The students were really fascinated to hear about the “flow chart” in Tracy Hall; especially how it truly starts and ends with them.  There were some great questions about Town Meeting.  We went through the Articles so that they wouldn’t be as intimidating as they looked.  Two of our YAC members planned to watch the Town Meeting and bring their impressions back to us following. 

Safe Zone training continues through March 7^th now, and will end with all Facilitators being broken into state-level groups. We will work with several Vermont towns to form a Safe Zone committee that will offer to host and facilitate community conversations on difficult and/or controversial issues.

Mud season registrations opened with programs beginning on February 28th.  Spring and summer registrations will open on March 18th, after a scheduling meeting to confirm our spaces with the school principal and head custodian. 

Marisa Lorenzo has applied for appointment to the Council, and is awaiting a date from the Select Board.